Both last night and then today; I've gotten some great burn times in my 13NC whilst burning silver maple!!! Not usable heat, but reloadable without aid. Loaded up the stove last night around 9:30PM, got that load cruising and damped down about 9:50PM and went to bed. Got up at 5:45AM, let the dogs out and grabbed 3 real thin splits (almost kindling as they were in my stack) off the deck. Now I had to work a little to get those splits going, as there was only a few coals left, but I did it without the help of any paper or SuperCedars!!!! Stove was warm to the touch, but my stove top thermometers were bottomed out. The small splits got ripping and coaled up while I showered, dressed and ate breakfast. Stove top is around 300* and I throw in 3 good sized splits to get them going before I leave. Brush my teeth, let the dogs out again and damp down the stove to go to work. Stove top running 500* now. Leave house at 8:30AM. Get back today at 3:15PM and I still have and nice, large bed of coals in the box. The firebricks nor the glass are not black either, so I didn't smother the fire!! Stove top still at about 200* and the stove room is at 72* and the back hallway is at 69*. Englander 13NC........1.8cu.ft. box...........burning silver maple. I'm happy!! Gotta reload the stove now!!
When I was a kid, pretty much all we burned was soft maple, from the farmer that was selling it down the road. I think it's great. My first batch up on the porch is silver I think. Never saw the leaves on it, but it was paler than a lot of the red I'm getting now. It's still almost too much right now - ran a load yesterday and it got up to 78 in the living room! I'll probably always be burning some type of maple - and save the harder stuff for the dead of winter.
According to the "official wood BTU chart", there's not that much difference between silver maple and box elder. I've burned a lot of box elder the last couple years, so I know. I also am POSITIVE that the wood I'm burning now is silver maple because I got it from my neighbors yard last summer!!! Way better burn time when compared to box elder.................just saying.
Whitey, that is actually quite common to see at this time of the year. The only reason we don't see it in winter is that we keep the stove stocked! But many times you'll find when you open the firebox door and look, all you'll see is ash. But take the poker and rack through those ashes and you should find some hot coals. It doesn't take too much to get some kindling to start. For example, at this time of year we tend to burn quite a bit of soft maple and that also is what we use for kindling wood. I can put in 3 splits at night and in the morning the stove is still warm but not hot. Rake the coals, add a couple small splits of soft maple or some kindling and it doesn't take long before you are enjoying a nice warm fire. And yes, I would put box elder at about the same level as soft maple. It has been a long time though since we've burned any box elder. Tis okay, we still have plenty of white ash.
I hear what you're saying, and thank you!!! But last year at this time with box elder (same sized splits) I wasn't getting anywhere near the same burn times. Box elder burned just great...............just rather quickly with little or no coals left on a longer type cycle!! And don't forget, last year wasn't stupid cold until after Thanksgiving!!!
Similar results here today. Threw on 5 medium-small Cherry, maybe half a load, on a pretty good coal bed at 8:30A. It's only a point better than Silver in the charts. Ten hours later, stove has dropped under 200 but it's 71 in here so it's all good and I'm callin' it a burn! That's one nice thing about this time of year; You can throw on some medium stuff, sit back, and think about your good stuff, still out in the stack and getting a little drier every day.
You are getting this shoulder season burning down ! Drier wood is easier to regulate the air, it burns much better on the low setting. I usually overheat the house the 1st few burns. Got some picture of the loads ?
That NC13 is a nice heater thats for sure. I haven't burnt much silver maple, but have done box elder ...Rather have silver any ol' day. It sounds like you'll have a nice run of burns for about a week or so in that stove with this cold front on the move.
We've never been able to get silver maple to burn that long at all. Gotta think that your stove had some magic built into it during assembly at the factory. Do you repeat any mantra words while reloading ( IE, "elpam")?
I'm not gonna look at the proverbial gift horse that closely!! I did do a "slight" modification to my stove which made it much, much easier to control. I'm sure that mod helped a lot!! http://firewoodhoardersclub.com/forums/threads/my-englander-nc13-mod.6685/
From what I have read our Big Leaf maple out hear is pretty equivalent to your silver maple back east, and has the same characteristics of fast drying, easy splitting ( if straight grained) although I have seen alot of knarly maples here and puts out nice heat. We consider it a hardwood here
